Welcome to floating vegetable gardens

CUTTACK: Enterprising slum-dwellers living on the banks of the Mahanadi river could soon have floating vegetable gardens as the concept of nutritional gardens for self-sustenance has begun to catch up among the marginalised population in the City.Piloted by the Utkal Sevak Samaj (USS), the project would involve growing vegetables on small floats at the individual household level. The slum-dwelling households would be provided with floats measuring around 15 ft by 15 ft to grow brinjal, okra, chilli and green leafy vegetables (saga) to meet their own daily requirement. The floats would be in the form of waste drums strung along to provide a platform over which soil would be spread to make the cultivation area. The harnessed floats would be pushed into the river during the day and brought to the bank during the time of tending, sowing and reaping by the cultivators. “We have planned to start this unique project with 10 landless households at Matamath Mallasahi by July. They would be provided with necessary training apart from the floats and other implements to start off,” USS secretary Amiya Bhusan Biswal said during the visit of a high-level delegation from the US Consulate General, Hyderabad, to the nutritional kitchen garden programme in the slum pocket on Thursday. The team led by Founder Board Member of Growing Power Inc and vice-president of Sweet Water Organics James Godsill along with Acting Public Affairs Officer of the US Consulate Elizabeth Jones and head, cultural affairs, Salil Kadar and Ranjan Panda of Water Initiatives met the slum- dwellers, who had undertaken the organic farming in their own little spaces which sustained them. The delegation also studied different aspects of urban agriculture in the slums. “The visit for me provides great insight into the amazing work going on in India on the ground among individuals. The organic gardens that I was fortunate enough to visit are exactly what we need in every city in every country,” Godsill said. As many as 80 families in 24 slums have taken to organic farming of vegetables in small patches alongside their hutments in the City. They have been cultivating vegetables and have also planted medicinal plants for common disease remedies. “Plots are of as low as three ft to a maximum of 10 ft. Farming comprises soil beds, pots and even hanging. The uniqueness, though, is the production that is completely organic in nature. The households have set up vermi-compost units that are doing well and on the verge of even going commercial,” Biswal said. The cultivators have even developed an organic manure-cum-pesticide by processing cow urine along with six leaves and herbs. It has been working wonderfully, he added.